Over 24 men released from prison due to DNA testing

Over 24 men have been exonerated after bite evidence was re-examined with DNA testing. The men were either proven not guilty or had the charges dropped. Either way, they were able to leave prison.

Many of the men had been in prison for more than 10 years, with one of them being incarcerated for 23 years total. The Innocence Project released a list of all the cases that are affected by the evidence.

Two of the men were convicted of the r@pe and murder of two different 3-year old girls and given life in prison based on bite mark evidence. Levon Brooks was convicted in 1992 and Kennedy Brewer was convicted in 1995.

DNA evidence showed that in both cases, the same man was guilty of this horrible crime. Justin Albert Johnson confessed after being an initial suspect. It turns out that the bite marks that “experts” claimed belonged to the defendants actually came from crawfish and insects where the bodies were taken after the homicides.

Amazingly, even though Brewer’s conviction was vacated, he was held in prison until 2008 as the prosecutor planned to retry him. Brooks was also kept in prison until 2008.

The question to ask is this: If there are so many cases that are overturned due to DNA evidence, why not make it available to everyone?